SEDUCTION Karina Longworth on Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Vince Keenan

he Many Loves of Howard Hughes” was an essential early series of Karina Longworth’s acclaimed podcast You Must Remember This about “the secret and/or forgotten his- tory of Hollywood’s first century.” These episodes spotlighting several women involved with the renowned filmmaker and aviator form the foundation of Longworth’s new book “TSeduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood. Telling the story of the figure who personified the male gaze from the perspective of the women drawn into his orbit proved an ambitious undertaking; after two years of research, Longworth said, “I learned much more than I ever could have predicted.” She unearthed enough material to spawn a six-episode season of You Must Remember This diving deeper into subjects only touched on in Seduction, including the careers of director Rupert Hughes (Howard’s uncle) and actress Linda Darnell. NOIR CITY spoke with the former film editor at L.A. Weekly and critic at The Village Voice about Hughes’ life and work, beginning with his impact on film noir.

52 NOIR CITY I NUMBER 26 I filmnoirfoundation.org The tempest over Howard Hughes’ censor-baiting build-up of his discovery Jane Russell’s debut in The Outlaw (left) allowed Russell’s career to flourish, as did her sev- eral films with Hughes favorite Robert Mitchum, including 1951’s His Kind of Woman (right)

NOIR CITY: Jane Russell emerges as Seduction’s secret heroine. boxer without ever actually working out. (laughs) He had effortless Many of the actresses Howard Hughes had under contract resembled virility. He wasn’t just Howard Hughes’ idol. For a lot of men and her physically, and you recount many incidents where she shows ini- women, he was an iconic figure of his time. tiative and agency, even outwitting him. How was she able to forge her own persona while in his stable? NC: Hughes called His Kind of Woman (1951) “the best picture I’ve KARINA LONGWORTH: Obviously, her ability to work while ever made” and in some sense you agree, describing it as “a B-movie under contract to him was limited to what he allowed her to do, but through and through, but it was the most thematically substantive— she does show more agency that a lot of the actresses in that situa- and possibly personal—movie Howard Hughes had anything to do tion. Part of it is that she became more famous, and she does owe with.” Can you explain why? that to Hughes. She would probably not have had the career that KL: His Kind of Woman is a hybrid of a couple of different genres. she had if he had not mounted this many-year-long campaign for Film noir is one. It’s sort of a Hollywood satire and sort of a romance. The Outlaw (1943) with her at the center of it. She was incredibly It’s about these people who are walking around behind false fronts famous before anyone had ever seen her in a movie. She was able to and basically negotiating the lies they’re telling all the time. (laughs) take the privilege and the platform of fame and build her own per- The version of Howard Hughes I came to know through reading sona, as someone who didn’t take any bull from anybody and was an many documents having to do with him was someone who told so independent, ballsy woman. She was unique in that case. many lies he—I don’t want to use clinical terms, but he kind of lost his mind. It’s dangerous to say somebody was insane when they NC: You’re so strong on Russell’s presence in Macao (1952), one of weren’t diagnosed as such, but he lost some semblance of sanity try- the films she made with Robert Mitchum. InSeduction , you include ing to keep all of his lies straight. I don’t know what was the chicken Hughes’ quote about the actor, which I suppose is a compliment: and what was the egg; I don’t know if he started pathologically lying “(You’re) like a pay toilet—you don’t give a shit for nothing.” What because he was already having mental problems or if he lost touch accounts for Hughes’ infatuation with him? with reality because he told so many lies. That’s a defining feature KL: The way it was described by people who knew both of them was of his life from the 1940s on, and it’s something that feels like it’s in a lot of ways Robert Mitchum was everything Howard Hughes pulsating out of the screen in that movie. (laughs) could not be, and that idea of not giving a shit is a large part of it. Howard Hughes was able to foster a public persona as somebody NC: You shed a lot of light on aspects of Ida Lupino’s career that are who didn’t want publicity, and was a rebel who didn’t care about the not well known, specifically her relationship with the FBI during the convention of society. But behind the scenes, he was working very blacklist era and how that affected what you describe as “the Trojan hard and paid a lot of publicists because he cared very much about horse act” she had to engage in professionally. What did you learn what people thought about him. There’s that, and there’s the fact that about her and how did you learn it? Robert Mitchum had this incredible physique where he looked like a KL: Ida Lupino obviously was the star of many great film noirs and

filmnoirfoundation.org I NUMBER 26 I NOIR CITY 53 Ida Lupino behind the camera of 1950’s Outrage. The actress and filmmaker benefitted from a professional partnership with Howard Hughes, but Longworth’s research unearthed Lupino's troubling relationship with the FBI during the blacklist era other films. She was also the only female member of the DGA in the NC: And you believe she did that because she felt it was a necessity. 1950s and the only woman directing mainstream Hollywood mov- KL: Yes, but it’s not like she’s the only one. There are several stories ies during that time. But what I discovered through reading her FBI in the book of women only being able to wield significant power in file, which was made available through a Freedom of Information Hollywood by aligning themselves with a man. In her career, she was Act request, was that she collaborated with able to get a start as a producer, writer, and the FBI during the blacklist era. Not only was director because she married someone who it a situation where the FBI asked for help, became her producing partner. In terms of the but she volunteered it. She did this at least “I don’t know if [Hughes] division of labor, Ida was doing much more of initially because she was concerned about her the creative work, but she was able to domes- own citizenship. She did name names, and all started pathologically lying ticate this work by being part of a husband- the names she named were people who ended and-wife team. That’s the way a lot of women up being blacklisted. I’m absolutely positive because he was already having were able to negotiate those minefields. she was not the only person to name any of these names. It’s very probable all of these mental problems, or if he lost NC: Did learning this alter your opinion of her? people would have been blacklisted if she had KL: It’s extremely complicated, but it’s abso- not done this. But she did do it. The fact she lutely a problematic legacy to grapple with. did it is surprising because she always pre- touch with reality because he What I tried to do was rationalize it and think sented herself as a liberal. Today we see her as logically about why she would have done it. a feminist icon because of her directing career. told so many lies.” But one thing very clear to me from doing NC: Hughes’ business relationship with research about her was she never presented Lupino is compelling. He sees a kind of sim- herself as a feminist. She was very careful while she was doing this patico between her career and his early success with Scarface (1932). thing that was absolutely pioneering for women to always say, “Oh, He respects her ability to tackle socially relevant material while still it’s not a big deal, I’m just a good wife and mother.” She played down making money. her professional success as a director and played up the maternal and KL: He doesn’t care about the social issues. For him, it was ‘Do what- domestic aspects of what she was doing. ever you want to do as long as you turn a profit.’ Definitely for him

54 NOIR CITY I NUMBER 26 I filmnoirfoundation.org Hughes was fictionalized during his lifetime by jilted filmmaker Max Ophüls in 1949’s Caught. Robert Ryan, here with Barbara Bel Geddes, “physically really resembles Hughes,” according to Longworth it’s the capitalism, not the social justice aspect. They’re simpatico in everybody will know it’s me.’ (laughs) Robert Ryan physically really that he’s interested in making money off of controversy. Any stated resembles Hughes. They have the same sort of lanky stature and ideals Howard Hughes had he was stating them for the money. a similar jaw, and it really does feel like you’re watching an actor playing Howard Hughes. NC: Howard Hughes became the thinly-veiled antagonist of a film noir in Caught (1949), a movie that only exists because of his business NC: Is there a Hughes movie you feel is underrated? practices. What insights does Caught offer into Hughes? KL: I would say Macao. KL: It was directed by Max Ophüls, an immigrant filmmaker initially hired by Hughes’ then-producing partner Preston Sturges to direct a NC: The timing of the book is uncanny. Were you working on it movie called Vendetta, which was supposed to be a showcase for one during the revelations about Harvey Weinstein and the rise of the of Hughes’ girlfriends, a young brunette named Faith Domergue. #MeToo movement; and, if so, did they affect the way you wrote it? After shooting for a few weeks, Ophüls ran way behind schedule KL: The book was almost finished by the time the Harvey Weinstein and over budget, and Hughes decided to fire him. Ophüls was then stuff came out. I turned in the first draft in September 2015. Nothing hired to adapt a novel called Wild Calendar, and he used that to changed because of the #MeToo movement. There’s one line in the make a thinly-veiled portrait of his experience with Howard Hughes. introduction I wrote the morning after Trump was elected because He directed screenwriter Arthur Laurents to do a vague adaptation I was angry about the idea that a man who had openly abused his of this novel that was really about the way Howard Hughes treats power with women was being rewarded for it, so I wrote kind of a women. Ophüls pulled from his own experiences and stories he statement of purpose in the introduction. (“As we move into an era probably learned second- and thirdhand from other women in Hol- in which there is frank public discussion of the exploitation, subju- lywood. Arthur Laurents himself spoke to a woman named Lynn gation, manipulation, and abuse of women by men in positions of Baggett who’d had an interesting experience being flown to Las power, it’s time to rethink stories that lionize playboys, that celebrate Vegas to be one of two dozen women who were, unbeknownst to the idea that women of the twentieth century were lands to be con- them, competing to be Howard Hughes’ date for the evening. The quered, or collateral damage to a great man’s rise and fall.”) A year movie ended up starring Robert Ryan as a character named Smith and a half after writing [the book], in November 2016, I woke up Ohlrig who is pretty clearly based on Hughes. Hughes knew the and had that sentence in my head. movie was being made; he had dailies sent to his house every day. He did request some changes to the character, but they were superficial NC: The contemporary stories we’re hearing now are rife with unsa- changes, like ‘I don’t him want wearing tennis shoes because then vory details, but Hughes’ system of exploiting women in his employ

filmnoirfoundation.org I NUMBER 26 I NOIR CITY 55 Howard Hughes cut a swath through Hollywood, his paramours including some of the silver screen’s most famous faces like Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and, shown above with Hughes, Ginger Rogers was even more elaborate and controlling. What exactly would hap- She believed Howard Hughes was going to marry her. He gave her pen to a woman who signed a contract with him thinking she was father and her grandfather jobs, and basically strung her along for about to become a star? five or six years. He did eventually put her in a movie, but it’s the KL: In most cases, they were really young––maybe eighteen, nineteen movie Max Ophüls got fired from directing Vendetta( ). Two or three years old. They were often accompanied by other directors, including probably Hughes their mother to Hollywood. Hughes would himself, took turns trying to make this movie. put them in the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Sun- It was finally released about ten years after she set Marquis Hotel, the Chateau Marmont, “Ultimately, he was a first met Hughes, and it was a disaster. As far or maybe he would get them an apartment. as I can tell, it’s not commercially available. I He would have every moment of their lives human being and there’s was able to buy a bootleg DVD from Europe. accounted for. They would be given acting, Hughes put a lot of his movies in a vault and dance, and voice lessons all day long. At then they’d never be in public circulation night, they would be required to go out to a tragedy in his life that I again. Hell’s Angels, Scarface, the more classic dinner with Hughes’ chauffeur as their date, films, they’re only in circulation because they although these were very chaste dates. Driv- think is fine to think of as were released by his estate after he died. ers were not even allowed to touch them to help them out of the car. Usually, eventually, tragic, but I don’t think NC: So how was Vendetta? the mother would be convinced to leave so the KL: Not good. (laughs) It’s really not good, girl’s family couldn’t exert any control over but fascinating in its way because it’s trans- her because Hughes wanted that control. In he’s a hero.” parently an incest fantasy. So, yet more shades most cases, the women would never work; of things Howard Hughes was interested in. they would stay on this cycle of being “trained to work” for months or even years until they usually figured out how to get out of their NC: Hughes goes from dating women of substance like Katharine contracts and left. In some cases, they would be put into a couple of Hepburn and Ava Gardner to being “so secretly afraid of failure that movies. The book goes into the story of Faith Domergue in detail. he couldn’t approach a woman unless he was certain she was a sure

56 NOIR CITY I NUMBER 26 I filmnoirfoundation.org The July 1946 crash of the Hughes XF-11 reconnaissance plane prototype in Beverly Hills almost killed Howard Hughes; the accident would have long-term physical and psychological effects on the movie mogul and aviator thing.” What accounts for that transformation? Was it his age and People may recall him as an aviation pioneer, but don’t remember insecurity or something more? specifics. Certainly, he wanted to be remembered that way, but there KL: It’s probably a combination of things. He had an ideal of isn’t a great record he held onto or a single major achievement people himself that was larger than life, which he did a very good job of could easily point to. He developed airplanes during a period when putting out there in the media, but his actual personal life was some of the innovations he designed or paid for led to the rise of increasingly hermetic over time. This the jet age, but you can’t say Howard really increased after 1946, when he Hughes specifically invented this. had a major plane crash in which he should have died. He had horrible NC: The book and your podcast use injuries, but he’d already been in a contemporary references to help make lot of crashes by that point and this these movies relevant to audiences com- wasn’t just another head injury. I per- ing to them for the first time: speculating sonally believe some of the things that on how many Instagram followers Billie look like mental illness in him maybe Dove would have, calling out Hughes were that, but you can’t have that for “negging” women. What do you many head injuries over the course of want these newer and younger genera- your life and come out unscathed. I tions of film viewers to take away from talk about half a dozen car and plane Golden Age Hollywood? crashes in the book. KL: I just want them to watch these movies. I want [these films] to not NC: Hughes has been the subject of disappear. If I have an undying and multiple films, viewed variously as unquenchable enthusiasm for any- heroic and tragic. What is his legacy? thing, it’s being able to continually KL: One of the reasons why I wrote discover new films and be excited by that sentence in the introduction is I this trove of material. I keep thinking didn’t want anybody to think I was I’m going to run out of stuff, and then saying, “Wacky Howard Hughes, that I don’t. (laughs) There’s so much to be crazy playboy!” I think that’s some of excited about. And if talking about the way he’s remembered or perceived. things in modern terms will make “What a weirdo, but he had sex with someone watch His Kind of Woman, a lot of dames!” Ultimately, he was a that’s great. That would make me human being and there’s tragedy in his happy and feel like I had done my job. life that I think is fine to think of as I’m happy people listen to the podcast, tragic, but I don’t think he’s a hero. but I hope they seek out the movies. 

filmnoirfoundation.org I NUMBER 26 I NOIR CITY 57